Novelist-Journalist Curzio Malaparte made it his life's ambition to be
hated by his readers. He succeeded admirably. By the time of his death
in 1957, he was anathema to the right and left and almost everybody in
between.

His contempt for most of humanity was complete. He regarded hatred as
the one majestic emotion of this miserable species, for he who hates is
at least passionately concerned, not docilely conformist. He poured all
his venom into a novel, Kaputt, an account of Nazi...